#321 - Corey Easterbrook - The Power of Interconnected Business Relationships - Geezers of Gear

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I would feel so much better if Isaw more of a an actual
ecosystem happening like it usedto be.
The London Olympics need more sharpies.
OK, Mr. Woodruff, we already have 500 Sharpies.
That's all we own. Well, I need another couple 100
Sharpies. So they had to go to a

(00:23):
competitor and cross rent those other fixtures.
When you have more of an ecosystem where where you can
set up the next guy down to havesome cross rental and then he
can set the next guy down. When it becomes an ecosystem,
then the whole, the whole business does better because
everyone is getting a piece of those big dollars starting to

(00:44):
kick through and it can help youmake that bigger purchase
because you're like, well, my buddy over here, he, he said if
you buy these fixtures, he'll, he'll hold off on buying some
more cross rent from you. If you have the, and then you
work together, you know, with, with competitors.
I think stuff like that, it's really important because the IT,

(01:06):
it's the keeping up with the Joneses.
Oh, well, they just bought that.I mean, it's dangerous.

(01:41):
Hello and welcome to Geez of Gear, another amazing episode
today. Today's guest is Corey
Easterbrook. Corey is a lighting designer and
co-owner of Hothouse Music and Production, a Fort Myers based
company specializing in live audio, video and lighting.
With over 25 years in the industry, Corey brings a concert

(02:04):
level approach to corporate events, conferences and private
productions across North America.
Known for his creative lighting designs and high production
standards, Corey helps clients deliver unforgettable event
experiences. So join me and welcome Mr. Corey

(02:26):
Easterbrook. Welcome Corey.
How are you? I'm awesome.
How are you buddy? I'm doing really well.
What is that thing that I see inyour picture?
It looks like a cello. Oh yeah.
So that was a gift from my my parents.
It is a kind of like a, a music container.

(02:47):
It'll hold interesting. Yeah.
Music notes and sheets and stufflike that.
That's like my, that's my, me and my wife's music band Wall,
memory wall, all that stuff that's.
Cool, that's cool. I like it.
I like band memory walls. I have one, but it's downstairs.
It's not where I'm recording right now, so I'm recording in a

(03:08):
little corner of a bedroom because it was the only place I
could fit a desk or wanted to keep one anyways.
Well, yeah, because you got to keep that whole setup mobile
with you, seeing as you're up north right now, yeah.
Yeah, and I've got it dialed like I used to have to because,
you know, I'm I'm a little bit anal about sound quality and,
and just quality in general. So I don't want to just kick

(03:29):
out. It's easy to kick out a shitty
podcast and not yeah, kind of quality standards.
But for me, I like to have pretty good audio and I like to
kind of do it properly. So I used to carry around a road
case with like a mixer in it that was a a podcasting mixer
and recording devices and all this stuff.
And I had like basically a road case and a big duffel bag that I

(03:51):
had to carry to do a podcast. Now I basically have this
microphone and this boom arm andthat's it, you know, and my
laptop and so and I could get rid of the boom arm, but I don't
like a little stand in front of me like because plus if you
touch the desk, you hear it through the mic and all kinds.
And you just look so much more professional.

(04:12):
I do look pretty. I look pretty fucking
professional right now. I, I, I, I think you should
probably get that that microphone platinumed out
though. I think you think so.
I think you need some. I think you need some platinum
in your life. We need to bling my microphone a
bit. I didn't say bling, just
platinum. We don't need to go full
rhinestone. We're not.
Come on, man, come on. No, I, you know, I, I wish I

(04:37):
could just do like, you know, Airpods and, and no microphone
in front of me, but it I've justnever gotten the sound right,
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(06:09):
How are you doing? Doing good, like getting a
little little rest after I've been, you know, a lot of 1 offs
happening, a lot of you know, festivals and shows in the
middle of nowhere. For clients or for for your the
band. For, for, for Neon Trees.
We've been out quite a bit. And then obviously, like the

(06:33):
corporate stuff too, you know, it keeps me kind of all over the
place. Yeah.
So this last batch, though, was,you know, the three flights in
plus a 2 hour Transit van, get the show done in bed by 11,
lobby call at 3:00 AM to go to the next, you know, show in

(06:54):
California. And, you know, 2 hours in the
van and flights. And, you know, it's crazy flying
with, you know, 48 pieces of luggage showing up at the, the,
the tiny Municipal Airport and they're like, what is this?
That's. Hilarious.
So Neon Trees is sort of in between small and big, right?

(07:15):
Like they're, they're, you know,it's not a big tour yet, but
it's also not like, you know, four guys in a van kind of
thing. Yeah, it's it's very interesting
with trees because for whatever reason, people have heard the
name. Yeah.
But then they can't sometimes track it.

(07:37):
Yeah. And I've even had people be
like, oh, you know, the, like the typical Uber ride.
What do you do? I'm just trying to mind my own
business. And then, yeah, they push and
they push. And then you tell them and
they're like, I've never heard it.
And then you're like, yes, you have sometimes.
It's much easier if you could just say Beyoncé or, or, you
know, Justin Timberlake or. Something totally but I mean, as

(07:58):
soon as I say it started with a whisper, they're like, you know,
because that their their hits like animal and and and
everybody talks got a ton of airplay and then also just like
commercials. And I mean I've been I've been
in you know, an elevator and heard to the bands that I work
with pop on in in succession while I'm coming, you know,

(08:21):
coming down. So like, you know, they've,
they've, they've been out there and you know, the, the, the
tours are a little bit on the smaller side, but the festivals
are always crazy because you know, we'll do, we'll do the
college festivals and then, you know, the, the, the standard,
you know, state festivals and it's crazy to college festivals.

(08:43):
Like these kids basically grew up, you know, listen to that
stuff. You know, I call them kids now.
I, I feel I'm like, wait a minute, I was a kid and I'm then
I go to these college shows. I'm like, Oh my gosh, these,
these are. Wait till you get to my age
because I'm calling you a kid. Well, hey, I'll take that as a
compliment for now. Exactly.
Trust me, it gets white over here, man.

(09:06):
It gets worse. You become me and then go, what
the hell just happened? Like a minute ago I was a young,
foolish kid. Now I'm an old, foolish adult.
Yeah, there you go. We call.
We call ourselves Kid Alts, buddy Kid Alts.
That's funny, I, I admit that I had never heard of Neon Trees
until talking with you about it.And then I went and looked it up

(09:29):
on YouTube and stuff and I went,oh, I've heard this song before.
So, you know, sometimes, sometimes, like, the way we're
fed music now isn't the same as when I was a kid when you went
out and bought an album because you really wanted that album.
And, you know, I'd spend a Saturday afternoon in a record
store, like thumbing through albums and looking at the album
covers and going, oh, that's cool.

(09:51):
But like, at that time, they didn't even have listening
stations where you could hear some of the songs, right?
So you either heard one hit songon the radio or you heard none
of it and bought the album just on a whim.
And but you knew what you were buying.
And nowadays it's like you hear something either on satellite
radio, on radio, on a mix, on your iTunes or whatever it is,

(10:13):
or Apple Music, I guess, or, or Spotify or whatever.
And you go, whoa, I like that song.
And you might look at the screenand go, yeah, I like this artist
or whatever. But yeah, it's just different.
So you don't always know the artist.
You hear a? It is.
I like it. I mean, it has changed.
So I mean, and obviously music, whether we're talking the

(10:34):
production side, we're talking the business side where, you
know, all that stuff like the progression of change and, and
where it has gone. It's it's it's really wild
because you know, for for me, you know, I wasn't obviously
grabbing LP's off the shelf, youknow, and dropping the needle.
We had that at home. But for me it was, you know,

(10:56):
going into the store and listening to and listening to
the disc. But you know, you were.
It wasn't so single driven. Like the album had to support
the single. Yeah, like if the single was
good, like maybe you might sell a cassette or something like
that. That just was a single cassette.

(11:16):
But it wasn't so single driven. So like, that whole album had to
be rock solid. No, you're 100% right.
And I go back so far that like if the album wasn't good, they
just bought the 45. They bought the little.
Like, I don't even know if you've ever seen a 45, but the
small, the small record right you.
Gotta remember, Marcel, I come from the punk rock DIY scene.

(11:37):
We, you know, we still print vinyl.
You know, I've got a whole stackof vinyl right up there.
So I'm with you. That's true.
No, but, but like, literally, ifthe album sucked, you just spent
$0.99 and bought the the 45 instead of the $10 album or
whatever, right? And I did that quite often
because I just wanted that one song and I hated the band or

(11:58):
something. And so, yeah, I mean it, it's so
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today at mainlight.com. And, and I remember hearing Bon
Jovi on, on Howard Stern when I used to listen to Howard Stern

(13:26):
and he's, he asked Bon Jovi, youknow, what do you think about
the music Business Today versus when you were younger?
And he said, you know what? I feel like our children are
missing out on that experience of going to the record store,
going to Tower Records and spending an entire morning or
afternoon there. Like just looking at album
covers and, and just discoveringall of these bands that they had

(13:50):
never heard of and buying something based on what the
album cover looked like or the names of the songs or whatever.
And you could even go look at the lyrics sometimes inside the
album cover or whatever. And he said, you know, the, the
sort of kinetic connection to that holding that album and
looking at all the songs and looking at the pictures and

(14:12):
everything. It's gone.
And now it's such a like just here and gone kind of feeling
with music, like they come through, they go through your,
your playlist or your whatever you're listening to.
And it's not the same. There's not the depth.
It's all surface level now. Yeah, but then you know on the

(14:32):
other side of it. So me, I, I'm starting to get a
little bit more kind of set in my way is not like trying to
find as much more like new musicand stuff like that.
Like stuff will come. But my wife is still constantly
on the on the hunt. And I mean, there's also an
accessibility now to where you can, you know, you can find

(14:55):
bands that like back in the day,you know, that band would not
even have a chance of being available to you.
I mean, back when I used to, youknow, tour when I was still
playing, it's like finding local, you know, you're in
Charleston, you know, and all ofa sudden this opening band is

(15:15):
just blowing your mind. And yeah, you get to talk with
them and you get the record. And then, you know, of course
you lose that 3 storage units ago, 20 years ago, but now it's
it, you can still find them again because it's all been
uploaded now. And finding all those old bands
and listening to it again. It's great.
The whole discovery process is is so good now.

(15:36):
So that's sort of the other edgeof the sword, right?
Like, so I'll give you an example.
I like, I'll put in, I'll just find a song or something on
Apple Music. And then, you know, you create
a, a station based on that song or whatever.
And I discovered this band called Gun Shine, who you
probably have heard of 'cause they're from, I think your coast

(15:56):
of Florida. I think they're from Tallahassee
or something. They're, they're a pretty,
they're almost like an 80s glam rock band, but in today's age,
right? And there's a lot of those bands
out there that I really like right now because that's the
music scene that I come from that.
Well, and it's all running in circles, man, right?
It all comes back around, you know?

(16:16):
Check out Gun Shine. They're a really interesting
band. And so then I'll just say, you
know, create a station around these guys.
And now I discover just all kinds of new rock, which I
happen to like a lot of that music because it's like we got
back to sort of guitar, bass, drums and screaming vocals.
And that's my, that's my jam, right?

(16:38):
So, so, so I do kind of like that.
But you know, like I said, because you can listen to
everything, you don't really latch on to anything.
You just kind of it passes through for moments, right?
As opposed to knowing and especially like you know, when
like I went from cassettes to CDs and, and, and now to, you

(17:00):
know, to, to MP threes and owning it to now just streaming.
Yeah, you know when you couldn'twhen, when the Fast forward
button or you know it when it wasn't so accessible.
It also slowed you down to pay more notice and listen through.
Right. Right, exactly like Dark Side

(17:20):
the. Moon I've heard 1000 times or
more right the the the whole album, whereas like Gun Shine, I
couldn't tell you what the othersongs on the album aren't
necessarily right, but I could recognize it if it came up.
I'd go, yeah, that's that singerfrom Gun Shine.
But so, yeah, I mean very, very different.

(17:40):
So I didn't know you were you played.
You said you used to play. Yeah.
So the whole me coming into thisindustry all started.
I'm trying to think how far backI should go with this, but
basically I was. Was 7, was 7.

(18:01):
A long time ago, I was raised ina very conservative Christian
household. Like we brought, we brought the
TV up like from the basement once a week, you know?
Your dad didn't have an earring in his lip, you're saying?
No, no, no, no, it wasn't a thing.
But they came from the whole Southern California, you know,

(18:23):
hippie and rock scene. You know, my dad has seen some
of the like the best shows out there, you know, from all times
of bands and, and the bands he got me into, you know, molded
me, you know, with his record player and all that style stuff
too. But like in in our household at
that time, they've now relaxed quite a bit after having three

(18:47):
children. But at that time it was it, you
know, it was very kind of restricted on that end.
And, you know, the only thing I was really able to listen to was
like, you know, the, the, the Christian music scene artists
and stuff like that. So I went to the Christian

(19:08):
bookstore and was listening to music and I found ACD with a
cartoon face on it with spiky hair.
And I was like, what is this? And I put it on and it blew my
eardrums out. It was just straight 121234.
And then and it just went and I'm like, you know, I've never,
I've never heard anything close to that.

(19:30):
And I was like, that's different.
And I kept on going back and going back.
And the third time I went back, I bought all the records they
have. And that band was MXPX.
And that got me into punk rock. Interesting.
And that was in a Christian. They're not.
They're not Christian, are they?They so they started on Tooth
and Nail and like in their firstrecord, there were some

(19:52):
references, but you know, they were at that time, it was they
were Christians in a band. They, the music was about the
music they were in the punk, the, the Southern California
punk rock scene, you know, playing with, you know, all the,
all the bands at that time. But they got signed to Tooth and
Nail because they, you know, they came from, you know, those

(20:12):
church shows like back in even back in my day, you know.
There wasn't a whole bunch of places to play where it could be
all ages. So you would use, you'd use a
church, you'd use a civic cent, and you'd use whatever you
could. Yeah.
And so that's how I discovered punk rock.
And then and. Where were you at that time?
Was that in California or was that in Florida?

(20:32):
No, I was. I was, I was here in Florida and
I was about 13, I want to say I was 13 years old when I found
it. And then the church that I went
to had another sister church andtheir band, one of their bands
for the church band was, was younger youth group kids and

(20:55):
they came and played an event with us or something like that.
And I look at the drummer and he's got a Mohawk and the guitar
player, you know, is, is all thrift store clothes with a stud
belt. And I and I meet these guys and
we start to talk about music andwe were into the same music.
The, the culture is what lured you in more than maybe even more

(21:17):
than the music, right? Like it was the culture and the
look because you you mentioned the guy's spiky hair in the in
the one thing that you found in the Christian bookstore and then
the Mohawk on the drummer in this other band.
So it seems more like the look and the culture that really was
pulling you in. Like I feel like that guy looks.
It's, it's, it's a, it's a bit of both because in, in punk rock

(21:38):
culture or, you know, whichever subgenre you want to go with,
it's that identifier of like youcan see a look and be like that
person thinks like me. But it, it in, in all the
subcultures, it's all based around the music.
Like what is it talking about and how do you feel and like how
it expresses you? And then, you know, the clothing
and all that stuff is just an identifier to be like, I think

(22:01):
we think the same. We can talk to each other, you
know, makes sense. Yeah.
But getting into that and, you know, Long story short, that
drummer and that guitar player that was, that was Jeremy and
Zach, they were brothers. And at the time I played drums
and I played guitar. Well, their band, they needed a

(22:22):
bass player. They didn't need drums or
guitar. And so I was like, all right,
I'll learn bass. And Jeremy, he was going to
school for a professional upright jazz bass at the time,
and he taught me bass. And then that's how I started
back in, I think our first, my first show with them was back in
99. And that's how I, you know,

(22:43):
started playing in, in the musicscene.
And then I got into, you know, hardcore and metal and, you
know. Where were you playing at the
time though? Like when you started playing
with them? Were you playing in churches or
were you playing in? So in Southwest Florida at the
time when we started getting ourstart Florida at that time in,
in, you know, the early 2000s, it was a hotbed for, for

(23:06):
hardcore music. You had a lot of bands coming
out of out of Florida that were blowing up really, really big.
And so because of that, you had a lot of national bands that
were coming down. So we were throwing DIY shows
down at the the Naples Skate Park and like Civic Center type

(23:33):
area all the time. And I mean, we had everybody
playing their yeah, I mean yellow card played their New
Found Glory, played their Dashboard Confessional.
All these bands that are huge now would come and we've set up
on the floor with a with two speakers on sticks and and RIP

(23:53):
out shows as much as we could. And then there was house shows
and all that type of stuff. So it was it was a great time to
be in that scene. It was so exciting because all
these bands and like, especiallycoming out of where I wasn't
realizing that, oh, no, like youcan go see these bands.
You know, it's not like you haveto go pay for a ticket to go

(24:15):
watch them at the Barbie or be Man Performing Arts Hall.
Like no, like you can go be partof the scene and and talk with
these guys and exchange numbers.And then when you book a tour,
like they're like, OK, well, hey, this is my friend up here
at this venue, you in North Carolina.
I'll set you up. We'll play with you.
You play with, you know, us. And like that whole DIY scene is

(24:37):
kind of how I came up. And I really, really loved it.
But you know, you, you get to that point in your life where
you're like, well, I kind of gotto grow up now, right?
You know, like this isn't, this isn't happening.
Jeremy went off to, you know, play in a couple of bands and,
you know, did the got signed, got dropped, all, you know, that

(24:59):
whole story. And I went into corporate
management wearing a suit and tie every day.
Yeah. Corporate management, like
outside the industry, outside ifyou got away from music.
Oh, OK. Yeah, like when at the at the
breaking point, I was a like a national training manager for a

(25:24):
company that's now defunct called HH Gregg doing sales
change, sales training for them.They they had offered me and you
know, a huge a store on the EastCoast, like the rocket was
really lit, but every I just I hated it.
I was like, this is a great. So I was at the mall with my

(25:45):
wife and I was like, I don't want to do this.
Like like it's not on my own terms.
I can't even see you in that. You know what I mean?
Everybody I talk. Oh yeah.
I don't see that being you just as much as I know about you it.
Just doesn't fit. It was still good though.
I mean, I learned so much that benefited me now in my
positions. I mean, when you're running

(26:05):
crew, you know, running, runninga store of 48 people, you know,
all truck deliveries, you know, customer service, training, you
know, everything that goes with it, it it becomes, yeah, a lot
of. Moving parts, yeah, I could see
that, yeah. You know, knowing like I've
bought lots of things from HH Gregg and, you know, I think

(26:28):
they paid Commission, right? Because like you could tell
based on the people that they were hiring.
And I could see how that could be a great learning experience
to get in there and be able to sort of mold these people into
something and have some of them sort of rise up through the
system and become someone like that would be very rewarding.

(26:51):
Although you're probably dealingwith a lot of people who don't
rise up on a daily basis. Too.
It's true. Yeah, it's true.
But basically I went to my wife.I'm like, I don't really want to
do this anymore. And from playing in bands,
Jeremy and I had amassed, you know, a trailer, all this
equipment. And I, I went to him.

(27:12):
I was like, hey, you know, let's, let's, let's start a, a
production company or something like that.
You know, so we, we had 4JBL PRXpowered twelves, A personas
mixer, nice boat anchor. I think there was 8 par 56's on
wood bases and a trailer and andsome back line gear and so we

(27:35):
scraped up 3 grand apiece and started hothouse and.
Really. I didn't realize your partner in
Hothouse was a guy in a band with you back in the day.
Yeah, I mean, he's been my best friend since the age of 16.
That's I mean, yeah, we've been tight for a long time.
So, you know, we started Hothouse and Jeremy is, is an

(27:59):
awesome front of house audio engineer.
And I mean, I, I did audio engineering too, but we didn't
need two of us. And so that's where I started.
You know, I'd always really loved lighting.
I'd always been very interested in it.
I remember reading early like American DJ catalog books and
like porn over them. My mom actually sent me a few

(28:21):
months ago. She's one of the first plots
that I ever drew. And it was just me messing
around as a young teenager drawing stuff.
And I'm like, Oh my gosh, when Isaw it, I was like, I think this
might be the end. This is like the beginnings of
all of it. So you guys did Jack shit
basically about running a production company or anything

(28:41):
like that. You just said, hey, we got a
little bit of gear that we've acquired and let's just put it
together and see if we can make it work.
Yeah, well, we did know a littlebit because after I, I, I'd gone
up to after 911, you know, the job market was weird.
And we'd had a, a no name storm that had flooded Fort Myers
Beach, which is, which is where I grew up.

(29:02):
And my car had been basically completely underwater from sea
water. So it was, it was dead.
And I was like, I had friends that lived up in Gainesville.
So I'd gone up there to just, you know, get out of town and go
be somewhere else. And that was cool and fun.
But I ended up coming back because, you know, I miss my

(29:22):
friends and, you know, all that type of stuff.
Yeah, but when I came back, a buddy of mine who owns a
production company locally, you know, I was looking for work.
He's like, well, you can come work for me.
And he was doing corporate work,but it was like we did uplights
and stuff like that, but it wasn't technology side.
It was like Decor and Tchotchke side.

(29:45):
So so, but you know, a lot of big events with him.
So I, I, I already had that background like building trust
arches and that type of stuff, you know, figuring out how to
not blow circuit Breakers in a ballroom with par 60 fours with
gels on them. Yeah, that type of stuff.

(30:06):
Yeah. But then the band stuff and
knowing that background, then we're just like, we can figure
this out because I, I have an artist my, my artistic side.
Like I always knew about it. But then once it started to
being like designing, you know, small corporate events and then
doing audio and then getting into video and then getting into
lighting, then it was like, well, the lighting side I always

(30:28):
loved. And so I ran with it and.
But in, in the Fort Myers area, is there, is there business to
support that like it? You know, I've never known Fort
Myers to be a convention or conference sort of center.
I could see Naples perhaps. It is it is Nate, it's Naples.
Marco Island is the heavier sideof it.

(30:51):
And honestly, when I started it,like, you know, you're always
coming from like a rock'n'roll thought process of like, oh,
we'll do you know these pop up shows and like, you know, these
small little food festivals and stuff like that.
But then the business side I started seeing like my friends
that own these other, well, they're now my friends that own

(31:13):
these other production companiesin town.
I just, I saw what they're, you know, like what these things
were paying. I was like, this makes zero
sense. You know, I don't want to be
out, you know, dying in 100° heat every day, you know, for
this type of money. So I started to really pay

(31:34):
attention more on the corporate side.
And then, you know, once you realize that where your shop is
doesn't really matter in the corporate game, that was kind of
a breakthrough for us. And we started to get these
clients that have been using like in house AV services, But
you know, they had outgrown, youknow, what, what those, what

(31:56):
those services could really do for them.
And they wanted a another level of, of, of care and attention
and professionalism. And we started to, you know,
bring those companies under our wings and help them build into
better shows. And, you know, now we have a, a
nice handful of amazing client partners that when we, when we

(32:22):
talk about these shows, it's, it's not just a conversation of
we want this, this and this. Go do it.
It's OK. How do we build together?
How, how do we make this better?And part of that, and I think
this is one thing that's unique to us, is I'm constantly trying
to educate my my client partnerson how technology can improve

(32:44):
their show from a content perspective, because there's a
lot of trainings and learnings and breakout rooms and stuff
like that. But then also help them grow on
the financial side and showing them opportunities of how they
can take care of their sponsors using technology.
And wow, they're sponsors to open up the wallets so that they

(33:06):
can get, yeah, monitors, monetize it for better resources
to make it a better show, to grow bigger.
So that's one thing that we try to do differently than anybody
else. And then on the other side of
that too, is the gear is gear isgreat.
We love gear. I mean, I loved a nerd out on
it. I mean, you want to talk about a
guy that loves freaking Rd. cases, I'm your guy.

(33:28):
Like I would have Rd. case furniture if I wasn't married.
But my wife won't let that happen.
Like, I'm totally I, I love it. No, it is good because it's not
comfortable. But you need some grounding.
Thanks again for joining me on Geese of Gear.
Today's podcast is brought to you by our newest sponsor,
Gearshare. Launching on September 2nd,
2025, Gearshare is the first AI powered rental marketplace for

(33:53):
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(34:16):
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(34:37):
other benefits, so visit gearshare dot live to join the
wait list and take better control of your sub rentals and
drive up revenues today. So with all the gear that's out
there, there's all the innovation and we love it.
It's great, right? You know, all the new things

(34:58):
that you can do. But it really comes down to the
people, you know, the people that you have implementing the
gear, the vision behind that that they're bringing.
And with me being fortunate enough to be out and do the, the
touring stuff and meet those cats, which you know, they're,
they're ready to, you know, go through a wall, you bring them

(35:19):
onto a corporate show and they're like, wait, we're in air
conditioning and I'm sleeping inmy own bed.
This is, this is great. Let's, let's do a show.
And nothing is impossible at that point.
Cuz they're like, oh, we've seenworse bringing them in.
And then they get to know my clients and they form bonds.
And then no one that has to lookfor me being, you know, the

(35:41):
owner because they know all my guys can make anything happen
for them and are empowered to make anything happen for them.
It's a really it's a, it's a great, it's a great business
model for me. You know, so going backwards
though, like when you first started Hothouse, like did you,
did you think about going to Orlando and working for a

(36:04):
production company as opposed tostarting one in in Fort Myers or
working for one of the other local companies or something?
Or was it just a very organic decision?
We got this stuff sitting here. Let's just put it to work,
figure it out. I think that's an interesting
question. Nobody's really ever asked me
that, so I haven't thought aboutit.

(36:25):
Yeah, I think for me, after running the big box retail and
doing all that stuff, I think, Ithink I had the confidence to
just say, well, I can run a business, so let's run a
business. But I don't know if have you
seen the, there's a, there's a few pictures going around on the

(36:47):
on the Internet. I don't know what show is that,
but on the back of their, you know, the SL yeah, 3320 or
whatever it was or maybe a Sam 450, they had a sign that says
we just did this because we thought it would be easy on the
back of the stage. And I feel like, you know,
getting. Into this it's like.

(37:08):
I think that was us, you know, we were just, yeah, we can do
this. And then, you know, you get into
it and it's like every new thingthat pops up and it's like, OK.
You don't know what you don't know.
You don't know what you don't know.
But so having gone through that,let me ask you something.
So if you were advising a bunch of 18/19/20 year olds right now

(37:29):
who are thinking, should I startmy own rental company, would you
guide them to maybe get a coupleyears experience 1st and then do
it? Or would you just say, yeah,
jump in head first, do it? I think that we were lucky due

(37:51):
to the time when it happened. We were in that interim between,
you know, things were going fromanalog to digital like we.
Were moving, lights were still early.
Correct. Yeah.
So I, I think we were lucky thatwe jumped in when we did.
I think currently with the business, like I mean you gotta,

(38:15):
you've got guys that are out there doing it.
I mean even locally like you know, I've got a local company
that that we will, you know, we're we're kind with each
other. If they're too booked, they'll
send them my way and and vice versa.
Yeah. But I get a little worried when
when, when the private equity isjust gobbling everything up.

(38:41):
Everything is getting so expensive.
You know, I mean, we're talking baseline gear is getting so
expensive. And sometimes, I mean, I'll say
on the audio side, like console side, I don't know why it's so
expensive because I'm constantlywatching my my A1 looking at the

(39:02):
crack of his butt because his head is buried inside the
freaking you, you know, the brain fixing.
And it's like you're spending all this money.
It's all being specked on all these tours and it's it's
getting to a point where, you know, and everybody wants to
360. It's not like back in the day
where you could be Dave Rat and say I'm building boxes, I'm

(39:25):
jumping in the van. Yeah, I'm just going to do
audio, you know, because now it's like, well, I don't want to
just hire an audio company and alighting company and a special
effects company and a video company.
They they want it all 360, but these totals, you know the.
CapEx requirements are just ridiculous at this point.

(39:46):
I, I completely agree with you, but you know, before we get into
that, because I do want to actually nail into that one
because it's a big topic, the whole private equity and, and
CapEx requirements and all that stuff.
But what I was getting at is like I would always advise
people to take not only free learning but paid learning.

(40:07):
To take it seriously, like I, I worked for companies before you
were born, probably who I, I felt like I was smarter than
them. Sometimes I felt like I, I
didn't, I was like, I wouldn't say demeaning myself or anything
like that, but I would just, I, I felt like I was rolling my
eyes quite often because I didn't agree with how they were

(40:29):
doing things, but I was being paid to learn the business.
I was being paid to learn my joband to learn how to be
successful. I was being paid to learn
mistakes that weren't costing meany money.
They were costing my boss money.And to me that is invaluable
like that. I'm not saying go waste your

(40:50):
time working for a company for 25 years or something.
I'm saying go invest your time for a year or two years or three
years, whatever it takes to learn as much as you possibly
can about whatever it is you want to do with your life in and
lose your parents money or your,you know, the money that you got
for your bar mitzvah or whatever, whatever money is

(41:13):
laying around. Don't go blow that on your first
endeavour if you have an opportunity to be paid to learn
to be successful. Oh, and and.
And you know, in the different forms.
I mean, I think both of us have said this multiple times.
Yeah, if you have access to to ashop where you can cause it's

(41:37):
important to learn it from the bottom up.
I agree. Like especially when you Fast
forward when I'm dealing with crews, whether it be my crew or
if I'm on tour, I am never goingto tell anybody to do anything
that I haven't already done. I've done it all now.

(41:59):
Mine was different. I was doing it all because it
was owner operator. I mean, it was Jeremy and I and
that's that's just it like, you know, we we bring a few people
that maybe help, but it was it was all on us when you're trying
to make money in the beginning. I.
Completely agree with that. Like learn to work a broom
before you learn to work an MA3 console, you know what I mean?

(42:20):
Yeah, because also. Like I've seen a few people
where. Man, they can the.
The programming side is just, I'm like, whoa, like you're
fast, you're good. Like, holy cow.
Me. I mean, I'm, I'll say it, I'm an
older dog. Like the only reason why I know
how to program is because I lovelighting and I love Oping and I

(42:44):
love designing. If if, if I didn't, I wouldn't.
I don't want to learn programming.
I don't want to, you know, stickwith the latest updates and OK,
now we've introduced that, like,you know, that's I've already
got enough time going on. It is, it is especially when you
own another company, you know, and, and basically like what I
do right now on the lighting side, it's that's to fill my

(43:06):
soul. Like, I mean, yes, there's a
monetary value to it too, that comes to my household, but I do
it because I love saying house lights go.
Like that's why I do it. You know, I like to create.
I'd, you know, I'd love to sit in the middle of the crowd and
just feel the the buzz and energy, you know, surrounding
that. You're able to do that.

(43:26):
It's it's. Cool that you're able to run
your your business and also leave and go out for a couple
weeks here and there and do shows Yeah I mean I'm, I'm
incredibly. Blessed in in that aspect and
big kudos to my wife for puttingup with it with our 4 1/2 year
old son. It's not always easy.
It can be challenging. I can't believe your son's
already. 4 1/2, I remember when he was born.

(43:49):
I remember seeing it on Facebookor whatever when he was born.
Yeah, 4 1/2. Mine's 21, so trust me, it moves
quickly because I remember when my kid was 4 1/2 quite clearly.
But yeah, he's 21 now, so it yeah, time rips, man.
Yeah, it. Rips.
And it's hard for you to remember them younger than they

(44:09):
are when you're looking at them too.
Like you go to photos and you'relike, Oh my gosh, yeah.
So how? Do you balance that though, like
as far as the lighting design, touring or show side of things
versus the, the business? So like when Neon Trees or
another client calls you and says, hey, we've got four shows
in, you know, in the Midwest in a month that we need you on,

(44:34):
here's the dates. And then you have to somehow
balance that with whatever's on your books.
I'm guessing for local work. Is that challenging?
It when it comes to high house, it isn't.
As challenging because our schedules are pretty much three
years in advance these really well these.

(44:57):
These these. Entities, I mean, so one of the
ones that we do is Common GroundAlliance, that's the call 811
before you dig infrastructure, all that type of stuff.
It's nationally accredited. That's one of our big clients.
And I mean, I know when and where that show is 3 years in

(45:19):
advance usually. Because once you reach that
size, I would say once you reacha size of 300 attendees or more,
the pool of where you can go starts to shrink rapidly.
And a lot of these places, I mean.

(45:41):
A big favorite. If you have the money is the
Marco Island JW Marriott beautiful property.
It's like being, I mean, I've done shows at Turtle Bay.
It's gorgeous. But as normal you would say, oh,
I'm bringing in my convention orwhat more my association.
What are you going to do for me?That place is booked out so hard

(46:02):
between that they're just like nothing like you're going to pay
$900 tonight and you're going topay to use the ballroom and
you're going to pay, pay, pay, pay because so many different
associations and all these places are after COVID, they
just it exploded, which pisses me off because as a Florida.

(46:23):
Resident I used to be able to book a weekend there or at in
the keys at the Chica Lodge or something and get like a, get a,
a resident Florida resident discount and get oceanfront for
like 250 bucks. And that's just unheard of now.
Like that's seven, 800 bucks allday long at a deal, you know,

(46:44):
and I'm like, what what happened?
Like I can't go anywhere anymore.
It's gotten so expensive. That for my, for my last
birthday, I was looking because I was like, well, go to the
keys, I'll get some of the boys down and we'll go hang out and
I'm looking at these places. And of course, if you don't know
the keys, like there's not a whole lot of beaches in the

(47:06):
keys. Like it's coral rock.
That's what the keys is. So looking at these places and
look at the prices. And then I said then you know,
you go to VRBO or Airbnb, whatever it says, look at that.
And then a 44 foot catamaran popped up and I was like, oh
wait a minute, how many cabs hasthis got?
4 Sweet. So we ended up staying on a cab

(47:29):
around as opposed to staying at A at A at a hotel because it's
gotten so expensive to wear. Ridiculous.
Staying on a. $1,000,000. Yacht is cheaper than staying at
a hotel, which is? That's ridiculous.
Bonkers. Yeah, completely bonkers.
Well, I'm seeing more and more boats in Florida being put on
Airbnb and stuff, you know, likeas options.

(47:50):
Hey, instead of renting a hotel or a house, rent this thing.
So if you're at, if you're at the right.
Type of Marina like a lot of these are resort style or
marinas now that also have a hotel so you have access to the
pool you have access to everything else and it's super
cool but it's all symptoms of like these rooms are all eaten
up and everybody's trying to book out you know to the point

(48:14):
where I'm doing conference callswith inside labor unions you
know four years in advance of a show and they're like well we
need to get this Nile nailed down I'm like when do you think
this is happening yeah and they're like well it's next year
right I'm like no man you're booked out four years like so
that makes it easier though for.You to be able to to stick your
shows in with with your bands and stuff when you need to.

(48:37):
It does really on. On that side and Jeremy's really
great and my team is great. You know, I, I've got a crew of
people and since we work pretty much everywhere, I'm pulling
from my, my, my, my touring buddies.
Yeah. Because if you're flying in
anyway. So, yeah, doesn't matter where
they come from. So I'm, I'm able to use the best

(48:58):
in the business. Yeah.
People that I trust where if I'mnot there, I'm not worried
because I know they're getting alevel of care that there's no
way that my client would have access to any other way.
Your your. Company too like is, is of a
size where it's not like massivestress.
It's not massive, you know, it'snot like you have 200 employees

(49:21):
that are constantly going, hey, Corey, I need to hey, Corey.
Hey, you know, it's pretty calm and casual.
I would expect we have tailored it.
In a way, for it to be the animal that we want, yeah, it
makes a lot of sense if things start to.
Take off in a. Different direction.
I mean, you know, it's crazinessis a phone call away, right?

(49:42):
You know, one phone call can change your life, but we've
tried to tailor it so that it can be this business facilitates
our lives and our family. And not in reverse, Yeah, but
when it comes. To the lighting.
Side that's where it, you know, hothouse is, is easy to work
with there, but my wife, that's where I have to pay attention.

(50:03):
That's where the balance my wifeand my son figuring out like,
you know, because I'm not the only, you know, person, you
know, with a a high pressure, high stress job.
You know, my my wife is in the same boat.
I mean, she's handling, she's a buyer for Chico's fashion
company and she's handling, you know, millions upon millions

(50:27):
upon millions of purchasing, youknow, dealing with, you know,
especially like, you know, when you're talking about all the the
trade stuff that's going on, youknow, where you're changing, you
know, all the time. So she's stressed out too.
And so that finding that balanceis actually where I spend the
most amount of my energy is trying to make make sure that
we're we're having clear communication.

(50:49):
But she's so amazing. I remember because she doesn't
get to go out and see the shows,you know, like she's here and
scheduled. Yeah, being a mom and I'm
flying. But Eric Price came through on
the Mast Don tour and actually came to Fort Myers, which was
great because we're like, oh man, we only need to get a
babysitter. We don't have to drop them at

(51:10):
grandma and grandpa's and get a hotel and blah, blah, blah to go
see a show. And we're, we're, we're up in
front of house with Eric. And you know, it's just, and
Eric is such a fabulous LD. Like it's just beautiful.
I'm just popping along. She just looks at me and she's
like, I could never tell you notto do this.

(51:31):
Yeah, she's up there and she. Feels the bug and.
She's like, this is, yeah. Yeah, you.
Know she's like that's cool though that I mean you married.
Well, you know, it's like, is itMr. Wonderful who always says
that, you know, the most important decision you're ever
going to make in life is who youchoose as your partner?
And, and it's true. I mean, I know so many people

(51:52):
whose wives nag at them. And you know, it's like, she
just doesn't get what I do. And you know, you picked wrong
there, Mr. Like, she's not a badperson.
She's just not a good match for you.
And that's never going to solve itself because she's not just
going to suddenly come to your side and you're not going to
quit your career. So guess what?
You're going to have trouble forever.

(52:13):
And also I try to be very clear.On it too with myself is she did
say on, on, on on the Unity tourwhere I was out with AWOL Nation
and we were out with 311. That was the longest tour that
I've ever been on. I think it clocked in close to
seven weeks. And, you know, she came to me.

(52:38):
She came to me and she's like, she's like, you need to not
forget I didn't sign up for this.
Yeah, which is true. She she signed up for Hothouse
and then all of a sudden not Shithouse.
Yeah, yeah. She signed up for Hothouse and
you delivered Shithouse. Yeah, this is the She signed up
for this shithouse. So like, yeah, yeah, there's

(53:00):
bound to be some. Surprises there, yeah, but
keeping that. You know, in my mind and at the
front of you know, like this is all great and you know, I love
what I do and it's so rewarding and I get to meet such amazing
people and see amazing places. But I always need to keep her on
the front of my mind and tell her, hey, I'll quit it tomorrow

(53:24):
if you need me to quit it cuz that's the other side of earth,
right? Good for you man.
You know what? But you've said so many things,
like, I hate to pretend like we're relationship counselors,
but you've said so many things about communication and about
being honest with each other andabout like having those open
talks and, and how do you feel about this?

(53:44):
Well, I don't know, how do you feel about this?
And you know, that's where it's all at.
Like as long as everybody's on the same page and you're
communicating, you know, there'sgoing to be little flare ups
every now and then of oops, I'm gone for three weeks, oops, you
know, this happened or whatever.But those are those are you can
deal with those when you know, everybody's on the same page.

(54:04):
So I think we can deal with a. Lot of the issues of everything
you can pick and choose whateveryou want with communication when
people sit down and talk to eachother as people with with with
with respect and operating graceand and you know.

(54:28):
Things things aren't. As things can be simplified real
quick, you know, when you have a, when you have a little powwow
on the deck and somebody's talking about my PA, my sight
lines, and everyone's just like,all right, guys, hey, what
should we do? Yeah, You know, I'll give a
little solution. Not the problem.
Yeah. Yeah, you can.
Fix stuff so quick. When you show up on deck and

(54:50):
you're screaming at hands and you're wondering why you're
having a bad day and why your blood pressure's.
High and why you chose that? Yeah, like.
I come in and, like, I want hands to be laughing and joking
with the crew, too. They're not like some, you know,
sled dogs, like come in, hang out.
Hey, yeah, could you do this? And you, man, you, you just

(55:10):
treat people with, you know, respect and be kind.
And I mean, especially in our industry, like, people will go
through walls for you. But if you come in and you know
you're talking down to him and like, hey, you come on, man, you
know, And when I see it on on mydeck.

(55:33):
I and. Here's one thing where I can get
in trouble. Because as opposed to like, big
hat, no cattle, big hat. Owns cattle.
Like you, I don't care who I'm talking to you like yeah, I own
all this stuff too. I'm here because I love to do
this, but like you're talking onthe same level with me.

(55:54):
Whether you know it or not. I will call it out immediately.
Immediately. It's like, no.
And I don't care who you are because it's just you you're
giving, you're giving your camp a bad name or your company a bad
name because everybody talks about, oh, is this person coming
through? Yeah, when they came through to
me. Those guys are assholes like.

(56:14):
And then not only that, that cango all the way up to your band,
because if you guys are assholes, then your band is
assholes. Yeah, right.
Well, yeah, you're a representative, exactly.
But you're having a great day. I agree with you completely.
I love the whole, I love the whole concept of, you know, just
good communication and and yeah,I mean, it took me a lot of time

(56:37):
in my own career and my own lifeto not be a hot head and to not
just immediately react to thingsand immediately jump in guns a
blazing and all that stuff. Because we're passionate people.
And I'm in business, I'm an incredibly passionate person,
but I've learned to turn the passion into a superpower as

(56:58):
opposed to into something that just flares things up and makes
them bigger problems than they are.
And generally that's just about timing, you know, like when you
yell and it it's the same way I raised my son.
You know, if you yell all the time, it's just fucking noise.
At the end of the day, it it doesn't matter anymore.
But if you only yell once in a while, they know you're serious,

(57:22):
you know, take notice. Oh.
Yeah, they know you. Oh.
Now he's mad, you know, versus being mad all the time.
You're just an asshole. You know, like if you're just
yelling all the time, you're an asshole.
Yeah. It took me a lot of years to
learn that though. And it was, it wasn't because I
was an asshole, even though I am.
It was because I'm extremely passionate and, and I was

(57:46):
wearing that passion on my sleeve as opposed to to sort of
curtailing the passion and usingit as a superpower.
And that's what I try to do now.And, and it serves me very, very
well. So and I, I treat people the
same when they're coming at me. Like if if people come at me
yelling, I'm either like, okay, you know, if this is is you and

(58:08):
this is how we're going to deal with this, I'm going to take a
little bit of a time out and we'll talk about it later when
you're when you're a little morecapable of having a human
conversation. No, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm
sorry. I'm just a little pissed off
right now. OK, that's cool.
I understand that and I accept that and and, you know, let's
talk about that. But, you know, so, yeah, there's

(58:29):
just ways without being condescending and, and stuff
like that. There's ways to to just be
better. But I love the whole thing with
with, you know, your communication with your wife and
how you guys have sort of set some boundaries and every once
in a while you got to break thatboundary and then come right
back in again, as long as there's some communication
involved and stuff. So that's.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean.

(58:51):
I, you know, I'll never be able to win the lottery because I
already hit once with her. So that's just the way it is.
Let me ask you a crazy. Question that you might not even
want to answer. Go for it.
So if if you had a genie pop up right now and he said I'm going
to give you a choice, you can either have a business that
becomes, you know, a $10 millionbusiness that's wildly

(59:12):
successful, but you got to completely give up lighting
design. Or, you know, you can go bump
Koenig and become the LD for Metallica, or you can become the
LD for Beyoncé or choose whatever artist in the world and
you become their full time LD for the next 10 years.
Which would you choose? Well, so here's the deal.

(59:34):
That that choice is actually career family.
So I'd have to I'd have to choose hot house.
Wow, that's such a. Great, good for you.
What a great answer. As much as you love lighting
design, he's he's adorable man I.
Love being with that dude yeah, I I get it because I.
Would make that same choice for that same reason.

(59:55):
By the way, there's no way I would have left my kid when he
was 4 1/2 years old. You could have held 14 guns to
my head. And I would have said shoot me
because I ain't leaving. Well, and and my wife, I mean
that. Jordan's my wife, but she's
she's my best friend. I mean, yeah, when like, when
people be like, oh, what are youdoing this weekend?
And it's like, oh, we're we're going to a show.

(01:00:15):
And they're like, you, you stillgo to concerts?
I'm like, yeah, me and my wife go to concerts.
That's our happy place. Yeah.
You know, like go to the festival, have fun.
You know, like I have to turn that side of my brain off where
I'm analyzing everything going like, listen, you know, I got to
kill that because I don't want to kill it for her.
She's like you judging everything right now.

(01:00:35):
I'm like, I'm trying not to. I'm trying not to not not
outwardly. In my own head, perhaps, but not
outwardly. I won't say anything, but I mean
we. We.
We have such a, you know, we have such a great life.
And then, you know, with with the COVID surprise of Griffin
coming into the mix, like especially for such a dark time

(01:00:56):
for all of us. I mean, that's when you and I
met was at, you know, such a crazy time for for all of us and
you know, to have no income coming in and all of a sudden
it's like another mouth to feed and freaking out over that.
And then now you've got this little person.
It all works. So it all finds a way to.
Work when you have that little person who you look at and you
go, Oh my God, I'm responsible for this.

(01:01:18):
Like I'll never forget leaving the hospital.
And I'm like, what do you mean you're letting us go?
Well, you're done. Like what the what the hell do
you want from us? And I'm like, well, don't I have
like an instruction manual or something like, what do we do,
you know? I don't know what to do, you
know, And I was 40 years old. How slow?

(01:01:39):
Did you drive home? Well, no.
Here's the thing. I had to have people from the
hospital, I had to have people from the hospital come outside
to the parking lot to show me how to put the freaking the the
seat into the into the BMWI was like, I don't know how to do
this. Like where's this before
YouTube? Right.
So, well, I mean, it was. 21 years ago, so I don't remember

(01:02:03):
if that was before YouTube, but probably pretty early in
YouTube. You couldn't just YouTube
everything, you know, figure outhow to do it.
But yeah, I mean, it was just like, I couldn't believe they
were letting us leave without anoperating manual or how do we
keep this human alive? You know, like, does he eat
popcorn? Does he like steak?
What do you do? You know, when does he when can

(01:02:26):
he have his first beer? I don't know any of these
things, right? Let alone like, I put the seat
in backwards. I had the car seat in backwards
because, you know, it's supposedto be rear facing instead of
forward facing or whatever. I did it backwards and I got in
trouble for that. And you know, it was just like,
wow, a kid is actually not not only financially counting on me

(01:02:49):
now, but literally to stay alive.
We have to feed them. We got to wash them every now
and then. You got to change a diaper here
and there. You know, it's like, what the
hell? But it and I don't know about
for you. Like when?
When we were in the. In the birthing section of the
hospital, like, we were just surrounded by ninjas like these

(01:03:11):
nurses and everybody there. Like, they were incredible.
And then as soon as he was born and everything was cool, they
moved us to the other wing and like, they're like, fucking
figure it out. Yeah, exactly.
Well, we had a. Problem and you know, no
politics, no nothing. We had a problem because my

(01:03:33):
ex-wife now didn't want to breastfeed and I wasn't
breastfed and look at I turned out perfect.
So I'm just joking by the way. But you know, the nurses and and
stuff like were treating us likewe were freaking some kind of

(01:03:55):
space aliens, like you're not breastfeeding, you know, like we
were terrible people. Like we were depriving our son
of health and all this stuff. They were treating us like shit.
And so finally our pediatrician came in for his first visit in
the hospital to, to meet the baby and everything.

(01:04:16):
And he said, do you guys have any questions?
And I said, how much time you got?
Because I got questions. But my first question was, can
you give me the real scoop on breastfeeding?
Because everybody's freaking us out a little bit right now like
they're guilting us and making us look like a bunch of assholes
because we're not planning on breastfeeding.

(01:04:36):
And he said, listen, Marcel, I have two kids that are two years
apart, two sons and 1 was breastfed and one was fed
formula. And he said the one fed formula
is smarter, easier to to deal with, he's more reasonable.

(01:04:59):
He's like, you would think if anything, if one of them had an
advantage, it was the one that was fed formula, he said.
Here's the thing, the first fourmonths, there's a lot of stuff
in breast milk that keeps babiesalive.
Basically. There's stuff that that their
immune system, it builds their immune system very, very quickly

(01:05:22):
right out of the birth canal, basically.
Yeah, immune system and the. Latching like that, Yeah, yeah,
connection. Well, the latching we all learn
when. We're like 16 and get our first
real boob in our mouth, you know, But but the other part,
yeah. So I figured it out eventually.
You know, the latching I I got into but but no.

(01:05:42):
And, and he said literally just don't go on airplanes or in
crowds with the baby in the first four months and you're
fine. He said, in fact, there are
things in formula that are not in breast milk that are equally
important or even sometimes moreimportant in the development of
that child. And you're not sacrificing
anything. So if they if they, you tell

(01:06:04):
them to go fuck themselves. The doctor actually said that to
me and I was like, good, thank you, because that's kind of what
I did. Yeah, for, for me.
And this goes, man, for me, and this is just a life thing.
Balance. Yeah.
If you have too much of anything, yeah, it's not a good
thing. Yeah, you know, it's so true.

(01:06:26):
Yeah. It just just.
Balance. Like, you know, in in lighting
design balance, you know, like, yeah, you don't want to turn
everything on all. At once, just because you have
it. Yeah.
I mean, gosh. You know, when people ask me to
like, well, so do you have any tips for like, you know, getting
into the lighting industry? I'm like learning to sit on your
hands. Yeah, yeah.

(01:06:46):
When you. Got all the toys you want to use
all? The toys I still struggle with
it all the time, like don't use all the toys I always love.
Designers who who start with darkness, you know what I mean?
Like it just, you don't start with everything on, you start
with everything off, you know, because everything's building
and, and darkness is still important.
You know, shadows are important and all that kind of stuff.

(01:07:09):
I love that. And then it's it goes through
to. Everything else, you know, with,
with with my son, it's like, well, what about screen time?
It's like balance. Yeah, yes, he needs luck with
that. Yes, He good luck with that.
I, I you're. So going to live, lose control
on that. You know, I had that
conversation with someone this morning, he said.
You know, I'm going to teach my kid to not I'm not going to

(01:07:30):
allow my kids screen time. And I said good fucking luck.
Like you have no control over that whatsoever.
You can block them. You can put apps on their phone.
They figure it out way better than you do.
You know they'll and then eitherthat or they're just.
Grabbed on your leg, going hey, hey, hey, you're like, throw
that out. The other problem.
I need a minute. Yeah, have you ever done a cross

(01:07:52):
country? Flight without an iPad?
Don't even bother because I've been there.
Like I had a kid when there was no iPads.
You know, there wasn't iPhones back then.
And so, you know, you had to bring a DVD player, a bunch of
DVD's, some books, some coloring.
You had to have a freaking duffel bag full of stuff just to
keep them busy. When the iPad came out, I went

(01:08:14):
toss all that stuff. I just need this one device and
he's happy as hell. For a 5 hour flight.
That's pretty amazing, yeah. Yeah.
So back, back to the business. So we, we kind of touched on the
whole private equity thing and I'm not slamming private equity
because I think there's obviously a need for it in our
industry. The the problem is which is also

(01:08:35):
the opportunity. These shows just keep getting
bigger and you know, the stadiumshows now the requirements for
some of these stadium shows, buteven arena shows, it's like I
remember a day first of all, when there was no moving lights,
but I remember when moving lights happened and it was like,
you know, 24 movers on a rig wasthat was a big deal, right?

(01:08:59):
Like now, you know, the average arena tour probably has 5600
moving lights and, and you know,stadiums over 1000.
I mean, it's crazy. It's it's absolutely.
Insane and. It's making it so I.
Mean it. It affects how much certain

(01:09:23):
positions can make because it's constantly like the more more
more. And then you have the other
nefarious ones in the room that will not say who they are that
are just soaking every dollar out of every tour.
And they're making it. So, I mean, these the artists
are now touring to stay relevant, but only the biggest

(01:09:45):
tours are actually making any money.
Yeah, there's a bigger gap between.
The haves and have nots now. And it's funny because I was
recently talking to somebody from Live Nation, somebody
pretty high up in Live Nation who I said, what, what do you
think 2026 is going to look like?
Or maybe the end of 25 going into 26, What do you think it's
going to look like? And he said, well, we're showing

(01:10:07):
really strong blah, blah, blah. Like he gave me the company
line, strong numbers and blah blah blah and good growth.
And I said but where? And he said stadiums.
And I said, So what about arenas?
And he goes, arenas are going todo OK, but they're softer than
stadiums and smaller theater shows, and even some of the

(01:10:27):
sheds and stuff aren't going to do as well.
And, and I was like, really? And he said, you know, there's
just such a hunger for these bigstadium shows right now and for
Live Nation, they're so lucrative because they own the
stadiums most of the time. So it's interesting the
direction this business is goingbecause you know, the really big

(01:10:51):
seem to, it's funny because it'salmost the opposite of the
industry, our industry, our, ourcompanies, I see that the
biggest and the smallest right now are struggling and it's
usually due to a lack of capitalin some way.
Like, you know, you've got the PRGS and solo techs and stuff
who are always fighting to get additional capital in and our

(01:11:11):
loans are getting sold from thisprivate equity to this private
equity or whatever. And then the smallest ones may
not have access to the capital they need to be able to grow to
the next level. And, and they don't have access
to those shows at the next levelunless they're able to buy a lot
more gear to get to those shows.So there's sort of a crunch on
both ends. But yeah, it's, I don't know.

(01:11:34):
It's, it seems dangerous. It seems like we're headed for a
crash somehow. You know, I, I just I.
Would feel. So much better if I saw more of
a. An actual.
Ecosystem happening like it usedto be, where it's like, you

(01:11:58):
know, oh, was it the London Olympics?
Need more sharpies. OK, Mr. Woodruff, we already
have 500 and something Sharpies out there.
That's all we own. Well I need another.
I can't remember what the figurewas but was another couple 100
sharpies so they had to go to. A competitor.

(01:12:28):
And cross rent those other fixtures.
Yeah, when? You have more of an ecosystem.
Where, where you can set up the next guy down to have some cross
rental and then he can set the next guy down to have some more
cross. When it becomes an ecosystem,
then the whole, the whole business does better because
everyone is getting a piece of those big dollars that's, you

(01:12:51):
know, starting to kick through and it can help you make that
bigger purchase because you're like, well, my buddy over here,
he, he, he said if you buy thesefixtures, he'll, he'll hold off
on buying some more cross rent from you.
If you have the, and then you work together, you know, with,

(01:13:11):
with other competitors and otherother shops.
It's so funny. You've just created.
An ad for the new business that I'm building which is called
Gearshare, which is basically a completely AI driven matching
site. It it's a marketplace.

(01:13:32):
But basically on one side, you have a huge amount of inventory
from hundreds of companies or thousands.
You have an AI search engine that is basically finding
everything you need from everywhere on earth, whether
they're the smallest companies or the largest companies.
And So what that allows is little companies like Hothouse

(01:13:52):
to be able to put their downtimeon inventory up for
availability. So it's it's Airbnb for our
industry basically. And because I feel like one of
the, and now it sounds like I'm selling, but I'm not.
This is just my true feelings. I feel like that one of the

(01:14:14):
challenges that our industry hasto overcome is this, every time
somebody says I need another couple 100 Sharpies, you got to
go out and spend, you know, 200 * 5000 bucks or whatever, that's
$1,000,000 to go and buy anothercouple 100 Sharpies.
And while the manufacturers lovethat model, it's, it's not

(01:14:39):
sustainable on the rental company side because you know,
there's so much debt being builtup to a point where it's just
incredibly unhealthy and, and it, it creates just such an ugly
environment to do business in. So I feel like if utilization is
currently at 50%, it needs to beat 80%.
If it's currently at 70, it needs to be at 90.

(01:15:01):
Whatever it is, it needs utilization needs to be bumped
up so that you don't just have, you know, all of this dry
inventory sitting there doing nothing in between shows.
It should be being used on another show.
That's good for the sustainability of the planet.
It's good for the sustainabilityof the industry.
And so anyways, it's something Iliterally built 20 years ago and

(01:15:26):
then realized the technology just wasn't ready for the big
show yet. So I, I killed it before I
started it basically. And for the last 20 years I've
sat around thinking somebody's going to build this and nobody
ever really did. So I just finally said, you know
what, I guess I got to do it. So it launches in a couple of
months and I think stuff like that isn't, it's really

(01:15:49):
important. Because the, it, it's the
keeping up with the Joneses. Oh, well, they just bought that.
I mean, it's dangerous. Like the, the, the debt side.
I mean, I've, I've, I've, I've done it, I've gone into debt,
I've made those moves, but I tryto be very, very cautious
because I mean, I've, I've, I'veseen, you know, election cycle

(01:16:14):
downturns and businesses, you know, because, oh, it's a pause
off because even though nothing really changes sometimes for
that client, they still want to pump the brakes and you see
those ups and downs and then COVID or, you know, all this
other type of stuff. I want to make sure that I'm
nimble enough to to be able to make it through the next once in

(01:16:35):
a lifetime crisis, seeing as that's just my thing now, I
guess that's just a millennial thing.
No, no, but it's smart. It it's smart.
To like the thing that's going to break you is debt and our
industry, I believe is carrying a significant amount of debt
right now. And it's because everyone's

(01:16:57):
trying to keep up with the Joneses.
So if you've got the version 2, I need the version 7, you know,
and I mean, if you just look at sound systems, you know, like
the, it's incredible how much people are willing to invest in
the latest L acoustic rigor, thelatest DNB rig.
That doesn't change a thing about your revenue.

(01:17:18):
It doesn't change a thing about how many tickets are sold in
that event. Nothing, nothing.
You know, it's like, and anybodywho is in the moving light game,
you know, we're making these incremental advancements and
everyone has to jump and buy allof these new products.
And I get it. I mean, it's, it's, it's sort of

(01:17:40):
a, a flywheel or a hamster wheelthat has to keep running, right.
But yeah, like I, I would love to see a few less brands out
there and just a lot more focus on the really great brands
'cause there are some great brands.
You know, there are some really,really great brands in the
moving light game, in the audio game, etcetera.

(01:18:02):
And now we're seeing all these like I cringe every time on
these, these whatever the light networks are all called on
Facebook now, but I cringe when I read these posts, you know,
has anyone been using sheds for your shows or all of these other
like off brand Chinese brands and stuff?
You know, really is that what we've become?

(01:18:25):
Like, come on. I mean, I get it.
Everybody's got to start somewhere and I don't.
Try to dog people, but at the end of the day, it's it's, it's
where it's hard for me is you got all these people that I know
personally that are trying to come up with new fixtures or how
to innovate and all this other type of stuff and, you know,

(01:18:49):
within six months. You know the knock.
Off is out there and you know brat it just I mean as a
business owner, I I feel so hardfor for for the industry when
that stuff is happening and whenever I see stuff that is a
little too much, I mean I send it over and be like, hey, I

(01:19:13):
think you might be able to get seasoned assist on this.
You know, well, it's funny, right Before, right before I
got. On this a good friend of mine
who owns a pretty large sound company sent me this thing and
said have you seen this? And So what they were doing is
they were looking online becausethey have AL acoustic Cara rig

(01:19:35):
for sale with me and they were looking online to see if there
were other ones for sale. And they found this Chinese
direct knock off, called Cara 2 and sent it to me and I was
like. I was shocked.
I was just like, that's disgusting.
Well, you you saw the video of the L.

(01:19:57):
Acoustics rigs getting destroyedby ESI.
Yeah, I mean, like true. The fact that they won and they
were able to grab that system and take a dozer to it, like
good for you. I mean, that's but it's so hard
like that. If they weren't as big as L
Acoustic is, you know, there's no way they would have been able

(01:20:18):
to do that. How about the smaller companies
who are getting ripped off like that?
Like, you know, you can't affordto go to China and fight these
people on their on their soil and take them to court and do
all these things to try and protect your trademark or your
patent or whatever it it's just too hard.
And they pop up so quickly. And I mean, look at the MA

(01:20:40):
consoles, the MA 2 that sat on abooth at LDI last year.
Like shocking, shocking just completely.
And I know people, and I won't say who they are, but I know
people who buy them and use them, you know, Yeah.
And and honestly like. And I will my I understand this

(01:21:00):
and my perspective is different.Fort Myers is, it's not a small
town, but I didn't grow up with any type of real technology
around. So when it came to getting in
the lighting, what was holding me back was I needed a console.
And you know, there all there isis like more theaters around.

(01:21:23):
There's not any real venue that would have a console.
So that's how I got in with Kansas was because I didn't want
to buy a knock off because I knew that that would mess me up,
but I also needed something thatI could afford and that
hopefully I could learn, you know, but also this is where

(01:21:47):
when these consoles are so expensive, it it it, it, it
turns into a, you know, in the gatekeeping a little bit unless
you're in a bigger city because like, how are you going to learn
the muscle memory on this stuff?But the problem.
Is. And and I think so few.
People recognize, and I'm not, I'm not trying to excuse MA for

(01:22:10):
being super expensive or anything.
Oh no, no, no. But but The thing is to support
the software and to continue advancing and and innovating the
software is very, very, very expensive.
And you either have to charge for every update you do that
everyone would just scowl at, oryou have to have a really high

(01:22:33):
starting price, you know, because you're going to be
supporting the software forever.So could they sell that console
for 1520 grand? Sure, of course they could.
If you look at the hardware that's there, put it all
together, I'm sure it's probably567 grand in components, maybe
10, I don't know. But even if it's 15 grand in
components, could you sell it at30 for a brand new MA3 console?

(01:22:56):
Of course you could. But then you're going to have to
charge for software updates because, you know, they have how
many programmers that are, oh, 100% constantly improving that?
How many people that you? And I know if we told.
Them look you can keep 2 but there's a subscriber fee.
Yeah. I know 5 off the top of my head

(01:23:17):
that would be. Like, thank you.
Jesus, I don't want to learn another thing.
Just let me keep my 2, you know?Yeah, I've talked to multiples
about it. They're like of.
Course. The market, the market is there,
I mean. Don't get me wrong.
I remember when, you know, therewas a small portion of time
where Hothouse also had a recording studio because Jeremy
loved recording and then I brokedown the numbers.

(01:23:39):
I'm like, I don't know how anybody is staying in business
because the signal chain you want to buy is like, like, you
know how much we charge an hour,right.
So do the math of how many yearsthat recording studio business.
I mean, Can you imagine? Being in a business that that
changed that much because like again, I'm old, so I grew up

(01:24:01):
with people using, you know, tape, you know, 2 inch tape that
cost a fortune and was a very expensive process.
And you had to be in a studio nowadays, like I mean, this Mac
computer that I'm talking into right now comes with garage
Band, which is a pretty kick assrecording studio in a computer

(01:24:22):
for free. And you know, I'm like, that's
pretty wild. But you know, when when you get
into all of the digital recording now, it's so
inexpensive and so accessible that literally anybody could
build a home studio and record ahit album in their home studio.
Yeah, but I mean, I remembered when.

(01:24:42):
When? Pro Tools went from you own it
to like they're talking about subscriber and my business
partner was like just like all the other.
Everybody was like, this is crap.
I bought this, you know, I get it.
But I mean, that is where we're kind of companies have to, I

(01:25:06):
mean there's no. Way to support software without
being paid to support the software period.
It's a very expensive world to be in where you have to like and
unless you keep adding features,people aren't going to keep
buying your products. So right, you know, when you
have to, when you have to support software for long
periods of time, you have to build profit margins and to be

(01:25:27):
able to do that. So you know, when people
complain that A and you know, Chinese M AM A2 knock offs, they
should be out there because thatshould be a $10,000 console, not
50 or whatever. And but those guys don't have
the burden of writing the software.
They're just stealing the software, you know, so I mean,

(01:25:49):
that's not reasonable either. There has to be incentive to
innovate. And it's one of the things that
I learned working for all the manufacturers that I did.
You know, back then people weren't so brutally, you know,
capable or willing to knock things off as much as they do
today. Back then it wasn't an issue.

(01:26:12):
Now it's just like, you know, ifyou come out with the X light,
the greatest light that was everbuilt, like you said, within a
couple of months, there's going to be knockoffs, like identical
knockoffs too. That's the thing.
They're, they're almost identical.
And it used to be where they could copy hardware, they could
reverse engineer hardware and copy it really easily, but the

(01:26:33):
software was bad. So Moving Lights would go like
this or, or moving lights had goofy software in them and they
just never operated the but now,you know, the, the, you know,
the software is just as good. And so, yeah, that's a scary
business. It really is.
And I don't know, like how long is Roby going to be able to sell

(01:26:55):
$15,000 Moving Lights? I don't know.
I don't know the answer to that.Yeah, I mean, and that's that's
where it's. Your stuff has to work and it
has to once again to the ecosystem.
I can, as the owner, throw my Amex card and say I want two

(01:27:23):
dozen of this, Yeah. And that's great.
And I'm. Decided to make that financial
decision, but down the road if I'm constantly being like, wait,
what do you mean? I don't?
I bought two dozen. Well, yes, you bought two dozen,
but we only have 18 working right now.
Yeah, when that keeps on being athing.
Like and that's. Where as long as the

(01:27:45):
manufacturers really keep the focus on on the quality control
so that I'm not down lights and I'm not constantly, you know,
having to send a light off because I can't fix it on my
bench. Or that's what's really
important to me as somebody who's buying those lights.
And that's why I would continue to buy those lights if they're

(01:28:06):
the, if they're doing that for the argument I would make to
that. Or for that, is that better than
ever before? Every manufacturer?
Chauvet. Elation.
Roby Ayrton, you know, all the good manufacturers have nailed
it. You know, like, I mean, you just

(01:28:27):
don't see fixtures fail like they used to.
And I'm sure you do. You probably find some.
But you know, all I hear is thateverything's reliable.
American DJ, or a DJ as they're called now, are are good and
they're reliable. Everything's good.
Now like the. The good level has gone up to a
point where even the bad is likea A5 or a six out of 10 versus

(01:28:51):
A2 out of 10 like it used to be,where it just failed constantly.
But you know, when you get into some of these $200 moving lights
and stuff, it's just crap Like that stuff is going to fail.
You know, the fact that people are going on these light network
things and saying, so give me the real skinny on, you know, if

(01:29:11):
I go and buy these $200 moving lights to do like big concerts
and stuff, like first of all, you know, you're not even going
to be invited to the party with that inventory.
I'm sorry. So yes, you can do the local
high school dance or you can do the local, you know, dentist
convention for your local regionor whatever.
You might get away with that as long as you know they don't fail

(01:29:34):
on the keynote speaker and startwiggling around or something,
but it's just not how I'd want to build a moving light brand or
a a company. I wouldn't want to build a
company around bad inventory or bad people, you know.
So like, I don't know, like if that's what you want to hang
your coat on, great, but I don'tsee a future in it.

(01:29:56):
Sorry. You know, it's like having a
rental car company with all shitty rental cars like that are
unsafe and that are going to break down whatever, you know
what I mean? Like.
You. Know, is that what you want to
be like? Is that how you want your brand
to be represented? I don't think so.
But you know, again, like bringing this all back around in

(01:30:19):
a full circle, you know, the challenge is when you get a, if
you get a bid across your desk that says, hey, do you want to
bid on this? And it's got $510,000 movers on
it. Your only option is going to be
to cross rent because you're notbig enough to be able to buy
those 500 movers. So should you just immediately
be shut out of that opportunity?Maybe.

(01:30:41):
I don't know what that argument is, but to me like it's just
it's created such a vacuum at the top end of this business
where you've had to insert all of these companies, these
private equity companies and they don't focus on taking
better care of the customer. They don't focus on necessarily

(01:31:02):
quality. I'm not saying they're all bad
quality, but their focus is on this quarter better be more
profitable than last quarter or we're going to have a problem.
And you know, I don't know, is that what our business is now?
I guess so I call it send another semi.
It's just like, oh, we'll just send another semi.
It's like, no man, I can't afford that.

(01:31:23):
Like, you know, when I'm doing alot of times when I'm doing my
designs, like I would love to beworking with a, with a SAS
client where it's just like, oh,we'll just add another semi.
Yeah, but I'm not. So what I.
Have to do is I have to take. The napkin and look at the the
pack to figure out the ground support cart that I'm going to

(01:31:45):
have to pack with. And then I got to take that and
then I need to get inspired around those logistics so that I
can stay on. Budget because.
These guys aren't making money any you know, the money is down.
You know, the lighting could even be a luxury on some of
these tours, you know, to bring a ground package.

(01:32:06):
There's only so much space. You know, you've still got back
line in front of house and all that other type of stuff.
And so like finding, you know, fixtures that are quality at a,
a, a good price because that extends down to me in a rental
rate, you know, finding and I try to use smaller companies,

(01:32:26):
you know, like I've used PRG, but I don't need a 48 way Saco
distro for my ground package. And they're like, well, but
that's what we got. And that's like, dude, give me a
lunch box. Like, I don't have all this
room, you know, but they're not set up for that, which is why I
love, you know, like like what my company does or, you know,

(01:32:48):
Jason Ryburski with JRLX or Victor with Squeak.
Like they figured out how to to grow, but take care of of of
these. These are these LDS and bands
that need the certain niche, butthey need the transport option
like custom cards and all this type of stuff because they need

(01:33:12):
it to deploy and they don't have7 techs.
Sometimes we're lucky if we evenget a tech and not everything is
up. Not everything's up.
Beyoncé. Exactly, and I love to see
those. Guys do good because they're,
they're being very, you know, boutique esque, but really
focusing on those small things that make a big difference on

(01:33:33):
the road, you know? Yeah, Well, that's also your.
That's also your. Crowd, you know, like you're,
you're supporting your friends and your network and and that's
a good thing. Like there's nothing wrong with
that at all. And that's nothing against PRG
or anybody else. Like I think in our industry at
every level, you know, I think there's opportunities and I

(01:33:53):
think there's necessities to deal with somebody at that level
is at that level. And I ain't dogging anybody.
I don't care how big you are or small you are or whatever.
And I have to bring up Jake Tickle too.
Because otherwise he'll be blowing me up on my phone.
Be like me, man. Because I love the guys over a
bandit too. But I love to see those

(01:34:14):
innovations we're doing this to like I like to be able to get
inspired off of. Well, here's solutions to get
your stuff out there and to makeit so sets quick and you can
have a an easier day. Because I mean, most of the
tours when I'm doing it like, Ohno, we can't afford a tack.
Which is always funny because I go from being boss man.

(01:34:37):
Like this is the hand that signsthe check.
I shouldn't be pushing a case with this hand.
Yeah, to I'm in, you know, shortshorts, you know, running back
and forth to front of house, youknow, at a shed and it's 110°
out, you know, with, with No, I have to say short shorts.
Corey Baby. Why'd you have to go there?

(01:34:58):
No. Think about it for a second,
it's tasty. I had AI.
Had a conversation last. Week and I won't mention the
name or the company name, but anaccount executive for a large
company and he said to me, Marcel, you know, I don't want
you to share this, but I got to be honest, I don't feel like our

(01:35:18):
company is focused on the clientanymore.
And I said, what are you talkingabout?
And he said, well, I have like 20-30, forty year relationships
with some of these clients and my company has taken them for
granted. And really they've just become
numbers and they feel it. And so I'm talking to clients
all the time now who are saying you don't give a shit about me

(01:35:41):
anymore. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, of
course I give a shit about you. Of course I do.
Like we've had 20 years of experience together and, you
know, don't worry, I'll get thisdone.
And, you know, so I feel like this is happening at a lot more
companies now where you're seeing account executives who
are having to sort of deflect for their company and, and make
excuses and cover up and all of those things.

(01:36:05):
And again, it's that sort of banker DNA that's that's
infiltrated our industry and youknow, unfortunately that's the
reality now. So I don't know, like I don't
know well, and and here's the thing it.
Let's not get it twisted, it's culture and when you have a

(01:36:25):
private equity like very any given day.
When you have private equity. Come in.
They're worse than what it used to be, being bought out by a
corporate publicly traded company.
It's far worse because every daythey're looking at your balance
sheet and they're saying should I sell?
The building. Set your blood, sweat and tears,

(01:36:47):
your warehouse that you bought to my other holding company that
is now going to rent it back to you at a bigger margin rate and
just start to like, oh, we'll just tear a piece off here.
Tear a piece off here. And then all of a sudden the
company is looted, but they're sitting there going, well, what

(01:37:09):
happened to your business? It's not as good as it used to
be. It's like you got in the way,
you got greedy. There's nothing left.
And the culture is not about theclient, the customer anymore or
in my theology, like you can also fix a lot of those issues

(01:37:29):
by if you think about your employees and you take
incredible care of your employees than your employees
will take incredible care of your customers, Yeah, and then
your customers. Will take incredible care of you
as the service owner, right? Yeah.
And and here's the thing. When when you when you take the
soul out of it. And it all just becomes about

(01:37:50):
dollars and cents. Then it is just dollars and
cents. Well, in fairness, I would say
that. There are a lot of private
equity held companies in our industry right now and I won't
mention names, but there are some really great ones who
really do care about their customers and really do have a
great culture. And you know, I will say live

(01:38:13):
event Productions, a company that I did a lot of consulting
and, and supporting work with asthey were rolling up this group
of companies that included Zenith in Orlando and Gemini and
delicate and others. They, you know, right from the
top, they have very good culture.
They have very good people who really give a damn about the

(01:38:34):
company. And, you know, I was talking to
someone in the company a week ortwo ago and, and I said, you
know, at some point you guys areprobably going to sell to
another private equity group or something like right.
And Nope. And I said really Nope.
Why would we want to leave this business?
We love this business. And so it's yes, it happens to

(01:38:55):
have private equity money in it,but it's run with a passion and
a, and a feeling for, you know, really taking care of their
customers. And so they're still out there.
There's a lot of those out therelike that that have private
equity money, but really they are still built on doing the
best work and taking very good care of their customers.

(01:39:16):
And I know a lot of people will say that in their tagline, you
know, X light, we care, you know, or things like that.
And most of it's bullshit. You know, a friend of mine used
to always say that whenever somebody has professional in
their name, they usually aren't.Whenever somebody has
international in their name, they usually aren't, you know,

(01:39:39):
things like that, right? But I think there really are a
lot of companies with private equity money in them who really
do care. And for the companies that look
like they don't care, I know a lot of people in those companies
who still really do care. And they're fighting that
culture. They're saying that I see the
boogeyman coming in, but I'm fighting them.
I'm going to keep him from taking over our business.

(01:40:01):
And they might lose that battle,but at least they're they're
fighting for their clients and stuff, right?
And it's also hard too, because I mean, I mean.
I'm a business owner. I get it like I get the
day-to-day. I get the grind.
I get, you know, it's always on,you know, having to the
stability of. Of of money and and.

(01:40:22):
All this other type of stuff. And I, I totally understand why
people sell because like, you know, I can't say that if
somebody just didn't come to me with a, with a bag full of money
and you and I have talked about this, that I wouldn't be tempted
because I know where I could invest my money somewhere
different in hindsight and not. Have all this.
Stress like, you know, there's other things I could do, but I

(01:40:45):
wouldn't I wouldn't be passionate about it.
But you know, what's your price?You know, like you know what,
Corey, I heard somebody say yesterday and I think.
It was on a podcast I was listening to or something, and
he was an older guy. And the other person asked him,
you know, do you think you're going to retire soon?

(01:41:05):
And he said, why would I do that?
And he said, well, you know, everyone wants to sort of cash
out at some point and retire and, you know, go on with your
life. And he said, you know what,
here's the thing, 20 years from now, you're going to be sitting
on a beach somewhere, sip in a cocktail or something, and
you're going to be remembering 20 years ago going, God, that
was fun. God, that was amazing.

(01:41:27):
What I used to do. I used to get to stand front of
house and, and, you know, house lights out or whatever.
I used to have a little company that we had it under control.
We didn't have huge problems. We had lots of little problems.
It was so great. It was so cool to pull up our,

(01:41:47):
our sleeves and, and, and, you know, rally together and make a
show happen and stuff. And why would I give that up?
And it really makes sense. You know, it really does make
sense. Well, especially so my dad's.
My dad was in construction Superintendent.
Work. And when I became a teenager, he

(01:42:10):
like one of the bits of advice that he gave me was never go
into construction. He said period.
I'm like, well, why would you say that, Dad?
Like you've provided for us, like, you know, like you worked
hard and like, yeah, you worked a lot of hours sometimes and all
that type of stuff. It beat up your body a little
bit, but you were OK. And he's like, well, there's

(01:42:33):
just this top to it. Like this is this is the
ceiling. That's where you can go unless
you start your own thing. But then there's all these
other, you know, things that factor in.
He's like. But the problem is, is if
you're, if you're anything like me, and I think you are, at the

(01:42:53):
end of the day, it's going to bevery gratifying to you to turn
around before you leave the siteand be like, I did that.
Yeah, 100%. I built that building.
I did. That well and by the.
Way Fast forward your dad was wrong because.
It being in construction is one of the most lucrative areas you
could be right now. I mean, it's crazy crazy.
Try iron a plumber. Yeah, well, that's the thing in

(01:43:16):
the trade. The trades are awesome.
But he he was right about one thing.
But it's even it's it's like that on on steroids in this
industry. I mean I get to do that every
day and in a shorter. Time span.
I mean, I'm not talking about 5.Years to build a building like

(01:43:39):
no, no, no, this is going to be up in five hours and then it's
going to be gone. And I designed that like that
all came out of my head and thenjust miraculously went and, and
thousands of people or hundreds or whatever.
It is screamed and went, Oh my God, this is incredible.
And you got to be a part of that.

(01:43:59):
Yeah. And that's why this industry is
is hard. To get out of, because if you've
really got the bug, if you're really that crazy and you're
really that passionate, like what else are you going to do?
That's going to come close. Not very many things.
You could be a porn star, I mean.
That might be as close. You know, you could look at what
you've accomplished very quickly.
In my case, much more quickly I think on.

(01:44:23):
That note Corey, we're done. We've covered it all at this.
Point Religion. Out.
Deal us out. No, I, I I do have to jump.
But I I appreciate you doing this.
This was a long time coming and we got to do it again because
yeah, man, very enjoyable conversation, talking about all
kinds of catch up with you buddy, raising babies.

(01:44:43):
We talked. About marriage, we talked about
religion, we. Covered it all.
I think you know, private equity, private equity, come on,
we could have spent. A little more time in porn, but
you. Know we'll get to that next
time. We'll do that the next episode.
Stay tuned for Part 2. Right?
Yeah. Thanks pal, I appreciate it man.
Appreciate you bud, have a greatweek.
Hey, you too.

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#321 - Corey Easterbrook - The Power of Interconnected Business Relationships

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#321 - Corey Easterbrook - The Power of Interconnected Business Relationships